


The Ring

by dainochild



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Engagement, M/M, This is a birthday present!!!, This isn't a stand-alone fic!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 19:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4577613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dainochild/pseuds/dainochild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In chapter 31 of the fanfic Red Potter, this happened:</p><p>'N held out his left hand, showing Red a simple golden band on his right finger.<br/>“Black got it for me yesterday,” N explained.'</p><p>This is that story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unhappyrefrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unhappyrefrain/gifts).



Black and N’s first day in Lilycove hadn’t amounted to any signs of Red. N was restless sitting around the Pokémon Centre, which made sense after two and a half weeks of sitting around Aspertia. Even though he’d never had wanderlust before, Black kinda hated it too. So he suggested, “Let’s at least look around the city.”

“What for?” N asked. “It’ll be easiest to find Red if we stay here.”

“I’m not that worried about him,” Black frowned. “We can always ask the nurse to keep an eye out for him, right? And we have those, phone things, so we can find them easily enough.”

“I suppose you’re right,” N said. “Aren’t you concerned I should be resting, though?”

“Aren’t you concerned you’ve rested enough?”

N leant his head against Black’s shoulder. Black felt a surge of affection he wasn’t sure was entirely his own, but he didn’t mind feeling anyway. “Where would we go?”

“Around the city, I guess,” Black said. “I don’t know anything much about Hoenn. Do you?”

“More than I care to remember.”

Whatever that meant.

“Well, let’s get outta here, then?” Black prompted.

When they stood up, N took Black’s hand. He held it tightly as was, and tighter when they got outside, to the crowds.

“Is this like, the biggest city in Hoenn?” Black wondered.

“Second,” N replied. “Mauville is larger in size and population, but Lilycove is more popular with tourists due to its harbour-side location, its Pokémon Contests and its commercial district.”

“Okay then,” Black said. If he’d ever told his past self there’d come a time when he’d missed N so much he found even the essay-style fact reciting completely heart-meltingly endearing…

“Let’s go watch contests,” N said, dragging Black towards a huge orange building.

“Uh, sure,” Black said, surprised.

N froze. “Unless you don’t…?”

“I wanna,” Black insisted. That flood of relief he felt _definitely_ wasn’t his own. “I’m surprised you wanna though.”

“I’d like to see what they’re really like,” N replied. He started dragging Black again.

It was near the centre of the city, and surrounded by people. Turned out some celebrity was performing with her pokémon, and everybody wanted to see. Black couldn’t remember her name properly but when they managed to get in and were watching a young girl with turquoise hair and a disgustingly cutesy outfit, he recognised her. Kyouhei had pointed her out one evening while channel surfing as his rival.

“Okay, so I’ve never met her, but what difference does it make?” he’d added. “She’s cute, I’m cute, but I’m way cuter, right? Hue! I’m cuter, right? Right?!”

And of course Kyouhei had spent ten very not-cute minutes bullying Hue into complimenting him, until Hue’s face was redder than his jacket and he ran away.

The girl spoke using her name instead of ‘I’ or ‘me’ pronouns, which meant Black pretty quickly had it burned in his mind, okay, her name’s Lisia, and her beautiful altaria was the fluffiest-looking thing he’d ever seen in his life.

“So, what do you think?” Black whispered to N partway through the show.

“I think this is much better than battles,” N replied. “Pokémon can compete if they’re so inclined, but there’s less risk of injury, and all these humans are worshipping pokémon as they should for their greatest qualities.”

Black thought a lot of them were there to look at the equally as glamorous Trainers, but whatever.

“Wanna give it a try?” Black asked.

N smiled sadly and shook his head.

Oh, right. The whole Team Rocket thing.

“We should come back here after everything’s — everything’s over,” Black said. It was the best phrasing he could come up with. “Maybe then?”

“Maybe then,” N agreed.

When the contest was over (and Lisia won, though Black had to wonder how much of that was the crowd screaming her name every time she so much as breathed), they went back to the Pokémon Centre. The nurse told them she hadn’t seen Red, and they were out the door again.

“Hey, um, since we’ve got time and, uh, well,” Black glanced around out of habit, “no annoyingly affectionate younger siblings around, um, d’ya wanna, maybe…?”

N raised an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting…?”

Black gathered up his nerve and said, “I said I was gonna buy you a ring.”

“Oh,” N said. He sounded surprised, but pleasantly so. “I thought you were going to suggest sex.”

“Noooo,” Black groaned.

“Hoenn is known for its abundance of minerals resources,” N said thoughtfully. “This would be a good place to, to, buy, such a thing.”

“D’ya wanna?” Black asked.

N nodded.

Black took his hand. He kissed the back of it before leading N to the nearest jewellery store he could find.

“Welcome!” the shopkeeper called. “Is there anything in particular you lovebirds are looking for today?”

They didn’t reply, but they must’ve been blushing, because the shopkeeper started chuckling.

“Hohoho, elopers, are we?” she said. “Well, always good to see young love winning out. You’ll be wanting our runaways discount select.” She gestured to a glass display near the window. “And don’t forget, there’s a True Love discount! But only if you can prove your families disapprove.”

“My father died trying to keep me locked in a castle,” N said. “We didn’t kill him,” he added, like that made it any less suspicious.

“Well, of course you didn’t, cuties!” the shopkeeper chuckled.

N looked at Black significantly. “Shouldn’t you call your brother?”

“Shouldn’t we look at the rings first?” Black suggested.

They weren’t a fancy selection. Even so, the prices made Black cringe. He’d earned a lot from Pokémon Battles, but even so, to get something that even slightly matched the glamour of N’s castle…

Black tried not to panic by subtly sending Gold text messages explaining that he was gonna call soon and Gold would have to shout at him and N for eloping.

“I want that one,” N said, pointing at a simple golden band.

“What?” Black said. “Uh. Really?”

“I like it,” N replied. “It matches my bracelets without getting pretentious like Ghetsis’ stupid castle.”

“Huh.”

N smiled at him. “And it reminds me of you. As much as a ring could. Because it may not look like anything more than a pretty yet average thing, but it can become something amazing that I’ll love forever.”

Ah, the backhanded love confessions.

“Okay,” Black said, squeezing N’s hand.

“You’re so cute,” the shopkeeper sighed. “So, about that discount…?”

Black called Gold. “Hi, anyo.”

“YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED?! TO N?! YOU’RE ELOPING?! WHERE ARE YOU ELOPING! I NEED TO STOP THIS, BLACK! YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!”

The shopkeeper nodded. Black hung up. She took the ring from the cabinet, placed it in a ring box, and led them to the counter.

“Sooo, that’ll come to 15,000 pyen.”

N frowned. “Um, Black…?”

Black shrugged, pulling his wallet from his bag. He only just had enough.

“You’re such a cute, sweet couple,” the shopkeeper sighed. “Are you gonna wear it out?”

“Yeah,” N said breathlessly.

Black took the ring from its box. He slid it carefully on N’s ring finger. N watched him, not breathing, overflowing with excitement, even after it’d slid into place.

“Black,” N whispered.

Black pulled him into a soft, chaste kiss. “I love you, okay?”

“That’s okay,” N said. There were tears in his eyes. “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> quick and simple, but i hope you like it, nausikaa!! happy birthday!!!


End file.
